Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka has stopped Daria Gavrilova’s bid to defend her Connecticut Open title.
The world number 25, who reached the semi-final in Cincinnati last week, overcame the ninth seed and last year’s winner 6-3 6-7 (6/8) 7-5 to reach the quarter-final at New Haven.
After Sabalenka took a quick first set, Australian Gavrilova dug in her heels to claim a marathon second set which saw the breaks going back and forth.
Sabalenka steadied herself in the third set and raced to a 4-0 lead, but again Gavrilova upped her performance to level at 4-4.
It was now Sabalenka’s turn to lead the attack, swatting away another tie-break to take match point after nearly two hours and 50 minutes on court.
“Gavrilova’s a great player, she’s moving good, she put a lot of balls back,” Sabalenka said on the WTA website.
“In the third set, I started to be more calm, and then it’s 4-0, and I don’t know what happened – from that moment, it’s going down again, then up, down, up. I’ve never had this match before, it’s unbelievable.”
Ekaterina Makarova, meanwhile, reached her first quarter-final of the season after coming back from a set down against Magdalena Rybarikova.
The 30-year-old Russian needed more than two hours and had to sit through multiple rain delays before sealing a 2-6 6-3 6-3 victory over the Slovakian.
Makarova will face German fifth seed Julia Goerges in the last eight.
Puerto Rico’s Monica Puig progressed in straight sets after defeating Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit 6-4 6-3, while three-time champion Petra Kvitova was taken to three sets before advancing 6-1 5-7 6-2 over Zarina Davis.
